White House: Obama meeting with lawmakers won't be a negotiation

10/2/13 2:03 PM EDT

President Obama's Wednesday meeting with congressional leaders won't be a negotiation, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, since there's nothing to negotiate.

"The president's approach from the beginning in this is that he's asking for nothing," Carney said. Obama is "attaching zero demands to the simple position that Congress should simply open the government, keep it open."

Obama is "not going to sit down and start asking for puts and takes," Carney added.

The president is set to meet at 5:30 p.m. with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will also attend the meeting, to share the administration's assessment of how the potential for a U.S. default on its debts in 2011 damaged the economy.

Ultimately, he added, Obama is asking House Republicans to do "quite literally the least they could do" by voting on a government funding bill with no strings attached.